


Forest Hills, Queens

by FlippedScript



Series: Spider-Man's New York Tour (AU) [5]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Barbecue, Clint Barton's (Short Lived) Competitive Eating Career, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Identity Reveal, Legal Work, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25100683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlippedScript/pseuds/FlippedScript
Summary: She and Peter had gotten even closer, and after he’d crashed in her apartment instead of his own one too many times over the last few weeks, they’d even decided to move in together. Things were good, and Michelle thought she was ready for anything.  Of course, what that really meant is that Michelle was not at all ready for what life was about to throw at her, as she glared at the invite on her phone.It readMay Parker’s Annual July 4 Barbecue, and seemed fairly innocuous. Aside, of course, for the fact that Michelle was confident that all of Peter’s Spandex-clad friends had gotten their own as well. So yes, as it turned out, May Parker’s Annual Barbecue for Vigilantes and Friends was a real thing, and Michelle was in fact the “guest of honor”, if that could be a thing at a Barbecue.In which Michelle Jones discovers that her bosses have both secrets and a social life, struggles to decide which is weirder, and lets her boyfriend move in with her.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Michelle Jones, Kate Bishop & Michelle Jones, Matt Murdock/Franklin "Foggy" Nelson, Michelle Jones & Matt Murdock, Michelle Jones & May Parker (Spider-Man), Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: Spider-Man's New York Tour (AU) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557637
Comments: 27
Kudos: 126





	1. Move-in

If you’d told Michelle what her life would have looked like a few months prior, she would have laughed in your face. Since then she’d met Spider-Man, of course, but still. She’d quickly managed to get her bearings in the Nelson and Murdock’s system of doing just enough work that wasn’t pro bono to actually keep the lights on. Matt consistently and vehemently argued that he didn’t care if the lights were on, and seemed determined to ignore the fact that it was an expression.

They had a system: She and Karen would team up to play bad cop, presenting Matt with so-and-so’s case and half a dozen others. Then, Foggy would play good cop and ensure that they took at least a few, and that they could continue to do the important things, like be able to afford things to eat. They’d won Peter’s case with no problem at all, and Jameson’s face of anger would have probably made a decent meme if not for images of it only being accessible via courtroom sketches. 

Her relationship with Peter had been going well, too. Her time only knowing him as Spider-Man had helped, and she was proud of just how well she could read him when they were in difficult social situations. She’d gotten to meet May a few times, and they’d distracted each other from the news coverage of Peter’s fights a few more.

She and Peter had gotten even closer, and after he’d crashed in her apartment instead of his own one too many times over the last few weeks, they’d even decided to move in together. Things were good, and Michelle thought she was ready for anything.Of course, what that really meant is that Michelle was not at all ready for what life was about to throw at her, as she glared at the invite on her phone.

It read **May Parker’s Annual July 4 Barbecue** , and seemed fairly innocuous. Aside, of course, for the fact that Michelle was confident that all of Peter’s Spandex-clad friends had gotten their own as well. So yes, as it turned out, May Parker’s Annual Barbecue for Vigilantes and Friends was a real thing, and Michelle was in fact the “guest of honor”, if that could be a thing at a Barbecue.

She knew that what that really meant, which was that she’d probably be bombarded by a fair amount of questions and far more attention that she wanted. She and Peter were both introverts, and they preferred to do absolutely nothing to anything on days they had free. But when May Parker decided something was going to happen, it was going to happen. So Michelle tapped _yes_ on the calendar invite, and sent a quick snapchat of her rolling her eyes to Peter, with the caption “the barbecue is real :(”. Then, she decided to pretend it was in fact not real, and dived into work. 

Work went by quickly: Matt and Foggy talked to a few potential clients, and Michelle took notes as they did so. Matt liked a few of the cases didn't like others at all, and Foggy seemed completely willing to let him make every one of those decisions. Matt had a really good gut feeling about which cases to take, Karen had explained once, like that meant something. Maybe it did. All that said, Nelson and Murdock was one of the most successful firms in the state of New York when it came to percentage of cases won, so maybe Matt's gut was onto something.

Michelle had almost forgotten about the invite by the end of her work day though. Her walk home was short, and she read through a few news articles about what Spider-Man had been up to. She read more than she used to, a habit she hadn’t been able to kick since she and Peter had started dating. Peter was always happy to tell her about what he’d been up to when he curled up against her, but reading about those same events was easier for her - it helped her ignore the fact that people shot at her boyfriend pretty much every day.

The night before, apparently, Peter had been spotted talking to some unknown vigilante-type who seemed to be wearing some type of heavy armor. MJ didn’t recognize the guy from anything else, which was weird. There wasn’t really a name for the guy yet either, but she’d figure that out when she talked to (interrogated) Peter about it.

Peter was moving a few boxes into what would officially be _their_ apartment when she got back. His apartment was far enough away to where he’d rented a car for the day, even though he didn’t actually have that many possessions. Apparently he still had a number of things at his home with May, and he wanted to get them soon.

“Hey, Pete,” she said as she finally stepped into normal-person earshot. Peter didn’t seem at all surprised to hear her, even as he was busy carrying far more of the boxes than he probably should. She supposed that his superpowers helped with that, on both accounts.

“Hey, MJ. How was work?” He smiled at her, shifting the stack of boxes in his hands as he turned. She gave him a hand, which he wasn’t ever going to admit he needed, but that was okay.

They had dinner together, if you could call a reheated meatloaf dinner, and then cuddled on the couch while watching a documentary on her laptop. It was… domestic, which was weird for Michelle. She’d never really thought herself the type, but it was easier with Peter. They’d made the space theirs in the few months, too.

There was a cushion by the window, where Michelle would steal kisses from Peter before he swung into the night, and a first aid kit he’d hidden in the bathroom, that she was thankful every day they had yet to need. But still, Peter spent more time here than at his own space, which had initiated the move in the first place.

They nearly fell asleep like that, but Peter was nothing if not disciplined, and he successfully ignored Michelle’s promises of cuddles and other things in his quest to unpack his things. “If I don’t handle some of these things now you know I never will, Em,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her forehead on his way to put away a box of clothes in their bedroom (yes, her and her boyfriend’s bedroom, and damn that crazy).

Michelle rolled her eyes at that but forced herself to get up nonetheless, closing her laptop and Planet Earth as she went. She helped Peter unpack where she could, but didn’t want to mess with the frankly worrying array of chemicals that Peter needed to make his webbing. He still refused to just steal the supplies from Stark Industries, despite Michelle’s assurances that SI could afford it, because of those things he had called morals. So instead he just planned to make the whole apartment smell like Super Glue, which MJ did not approve of. Peter's compromise had been using something other than a 5 in 1 shampoo, so Michelle thought she had won anyways. 

Eventually it was half past eleven, and Peter left the apartment through the window with a kiss and a whispered ‘love you’. Michelle wasted time by skimming through drafts of the next Spectacular Spider-Man comic issue on the couch before falling asleep.

She woke up beside Peter in her bed the next day, and they got ready (sharing a bathroom was weird, but she certainly didn’t mind the new view) before starting their walks to work, hands joined as they talked. They talked a lot, they always had, but it was nice and easy, nothing like how stressful most conversations Michelle had tended to be.

Apparently Peter didn’t know much about the guy he’d been talking to, but he was wearing a full armor suit, and had asked to be called Iron Man. Peter thought that the name was a little on the nose. MJ promptly reminded him that he had, at fourteen, asked to be called Spider-Man, so he didn’t have much room to talk. Peter decided that was fair, and that was that. It did give her a decent segue to ask about the Barbecue, which she had been _so close_ to forgetting about.

“Oh, yeah,” Peter said, awkward. “It’ll be fun, it’s pretty low-key. It’s something Aunt May started back when I was younger. It’s really just the New York vigilantes hanging out for a few hours, and people can bring plus ones. So Jess’ll probably bring Malcolm, DD will bring his boyfriend, that sort of thing.”

Michelle wasn’t convinced that anything Peter and his vigilante buddies (friends? Co-workers? What did you call people who you beat up mobsters and supervillains with?) would ever get up could count as low-key, but that wasn’t the point.

They continued their walk downtown with linked hands, blinking the sleep from their eyes as they sipped at their overpriced and overly warmed coffees. Their paths diverged a few blocks past the bridge, and Peter gave Michelle a peck on the cheek and a squeeze of the hand. She made it to Nelson and Murdock’s after only a few more blocks of walking, giving Stan the hot dog man a wave as she passed him.

Because they were taking the fourth and fifth off, that Wednesday had become the last day of work for the week. They had a quick meeting in the morning to talk through plans for the day, as if their office of four wasn’t already too into each other’s business. Peter called them Standup meetings and said they did similar meetings at SI. Michelle called them a waste of time. (She also wondered if Tony Stark himself was allowed to call them Standup meetings, on account of his inability to do so).

She got caught up on a few documents and decided to stay a few minutes late, cross referencing a few situations regarding tenant law for one C. Barton, who she had not managed to meet in person. How the case had ended up in her caseload, she wasn’t sure. When Foggy and Matt left, Foggy let Michelle know that he’d see her the next at the barbecue. Matt informed her that he would be there, but didn’t anticipate seeing her there. MJ rolled her eyes ta that, and Foggy elbowed Matt in the gut. 

And that was… odd. Because their planning to attend the barbecue implied that they that Peter was Spider-Man, which Michelle wasn’t sure how to feel about that - especially since they had teased her mercilessly when she started dating him. She supposed that it made sense, however, for Peter to have some form of legal counsel in the know, and Nelson and Murdock were trustworthy and safe as well.

Karen gave Michelle a wink as she left as well, and she wasn’t sure what to make of that. Her phone buzzed with a quick text from Peter:

**It sounds like there’s a plan to promote me to a new lab tech position? I’m still not sure of the details and I’ll learn more at the start of next week, but they’re keeping me back to go over some NDAs. I’ll bring them home to go over, but they said they need them by Monday.**

That was officially a Saturday/Sunday problem, MJ decided, because she still had a barbecue to deal with first. And figuring out why Foggy and Matt were going was high on her agenda when it came to preparation. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a transition work between the last work and the next one in this series. Hopefully the next work is being set up well enough, but let me know what you think (or hope) the next work will involve!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!


	2. Injuries

The next day neither MJ nor Peter have work, so they stay up late doing nothing productive only to sleep in, like the irresponsible young adults they were. Peter ended up scrambling some eggs for what was more of a lunch than a breakfast. Peter had been adamant that he was going to cook, a skill that Michelle hadn’t expected him to be so skilled at. It worked out, because Peter liked to cook, and Michelle didn’t mind cleaning. May was a horrible cook, he had explained, and as Spider-Man he needed a ridiculous amount of calories every day.

At one point, he had also mentioned, embarrassed. Daredevil’s partner (Peter always used gender neutral terms for the masked people in his life, which was frustrating when she wanted to be a snoop, but was otherwise something MJ couldn't help but respect) had sat him down and made him promise to stop eating the little jelly packets that restaurants would put out. Michelle wanted to meet whoever it was who could scare Peter that bad. Peter found that fact hilarious, and promised her, between tickles, that she scared him enough.

They spend the mid-afternoon watching (and making fun of) trashy reality television, and performing important activities like taking out the trash and doing dishes.

Eventually, they don’t have any more excuses, and Peter produces the NDA that Stark Industries gave him. It’s a little crinkled around the edges, like a certain someone had rolled it into a tube while web-slinging. Peter at least has the sense to at least look ashamed, though, so Michelle can’t even be that mad.

The NDA itself is… something. If she didn’t know that it was related to S.I., MJ would have assumed that it was from a super-secret government project that was like, WWII Captain America project levels of strict. Peter was pretty much signing that he wouldn’t discuss what he did in his new role to anyone, and would under no circumstances share any information with the media.

(The fact that Peter had just been a rather public whistleblower escaped neither Michelle nor Peter, and did help inspire some confidence that Stark Industries wasn’t trying to recruit Peter for something illegal.)

By the time they had finished looking things over, they agreed that it was probably fine to sign the NDA. It seemed that whoever Peter’s new boss would be was a little bit paranoid about the sensitivity of their work, but that wasn’t the end of the world, and nothing in the contract seemed particularly extreme.

By the time they were done with the contract and the half pot of coffee that was still left, Peter and MJ were both starving. Starving seemed to be Peter’s default mood, of course, but when MJ was hungry as well, that meant it was definitely time for dinner. Peter also seemed hyperactive, so Michelle sent him to go get some sandwiches for them, earning her a few minutes of quiet. She looked over her calendar for the weekend, and _oh, right_.

Tomorrow. The barbecue.

So yeah, as it turned out getting herself some quiet was not a particularly great idea, however. By the time Peter got back, a trio of sub sandwiches (two for him, the last for her) in hand, Michelle was knee deep in research about everyone, and when Matt and Foggy had taken cases for them. The problem was that there were a lot of things that she could do wrong, and while being able to recognize that was a useful skill for a decathlon captain, it was also one that sometimes led to your boyfriend having to give you a super-powered hug. Which was nice, but also still didn’t address the fact that MJ _was_ going to have to meet Peter’s friends, and re-meet Daredevil after their awkward encounter a few months back.

Of course, the rational parts of her knew that there wasn’t anything to be that afraid of about a Fourth of July barbecue with an assortment of New York’s (actual) finest, but still. It was stressful, which was why Peter found her with her face inches from her laptop screen as she scrolled. He forced the phone from her hand, offered her a sandwich and a kiss, and forced them to talk through her concerns like rational adults (gross).

By the time Peter goes out on patrol that evening, Michelle really does feel better. She takes a shower, spends only a little longer than she probably should on an outfit for tomorrow, and then goes to bed. 

* * *

She’s asleep by the time Peter is back in the early hours of the morning, which is normal. She wakes up first, too, which is also pretty normal. She’s not sure if she’ll ever get used to waking up in Peter’s arms, but for now, she’s definitely content to stay there for as long as Peter needs to sleep in.

At least, she would, except all of the sudden the sun is peeking through the window. Michelle bats at her phone, squinting at the time, and oh, it’s ten-thirty, and she and Peter are almost definitely going to be late.

She all but throws the blankets off of her and Peter, and then he’s up like a shot as well (he was definitely pretending to be asleep, and MJ will pretend that she’s mad later even if it’s actually super cute). It isn’t even ten minutes later that they’re out the door, Peter’s Spidey go-bag slung over his shoulders. Aside from Peter’s mismatched socks and the fact that they were both blinking sleep from their eyes, they could have almost passed for people who had their lives together.

They hailed a taxi, because Michelle refused to let Peter swing there, and taking the subway would leave them late. Aunt May greets them both with hugs as soon as they make it to the door, and users them to the backyard. MJ can spot Jessica Jones already there, having successfully found herself a corner to hide in. She has on a leather jacket a jeans, and looks almost like a normal New Yorker. That is, aside from the fact that she has what appears to be a flask in one hand, and a plastic container of lemonade in the other. The whole super-hungriness thing Peter has probably applies for her as well, which sounds like a huge hassle. Being able to go through that much alcohol still seems impressive, though.

Michelle can’t recognize the other two people, though. It’s a man who looks like he’s about forty, and a girl who is definitely younger than twenty. Each of them has a Guitar bag slung over their shoulder, and they seem to be competing to determine who can fit more brownie bites in their mouth. “Those are the Hawkeyes,” Peter says, as if that’s an adequate explanation. It sort of is, but not really.

“Ah,” she says, entirely prepared to fake her way through this. “Got it,” she says, smiling just enough to hopefully fool Peter. She’s been through the stressed-about-meeting-people song and dance at least twice now, they she doesn’t need to again. “I’m gonna catch up with Jess, you’ll be okay?” Peter asks, squeezing her hand.

Michelle takes a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s fine.” And since Peter believes in nothing less than throwing people into the deep end, he lets go of MJ’s hand and turns around, picking up a bag of chips from the table on his way to (Jessica) Jones. She takes a few more steps towards the bickering duo of guitarists(?), and it’s the male Hawkeye who notices MJ first. He makes eye contact doesn’t actually stop stuffing brownie bites into his mouth though, eventually seeming to win the competition. He makes a motion that looks like he wants to wave, but instead he winces in pain as he pulls at the sling his arm is in.

“Take that, Kate!” He cries in satisfaction, a few flecks of food falling to the grass as he swallows. “You can vouch for me, right?” He asks, and the girl (Kate, Michelle realizes) seems mortified. She takes a few moments to swallow down her own brownie bites, and she at least has the class to use a napkin. She tosses another the man’s way. “Congrats, Old Man. Want to tell me who Spidey’s mysterious friend is?”

The still-unnamed man laughs, and catches the napkin. “I assume she’s his girlfriend, but she can probably answer that better herself, kiddo.”

“Michelle Jones, and yes, I’m dating Peter,” Michelle says, because she’s certainly Peter Parker’s girlfriend before she’s Spider-Man’s.

“You keep him out of trouble?” Kate asks, idly playing with the strap of her guitar bag.

MJ can’t help but laugh. “Someone has to try, at least. He says you two are the Hawkeyes, speaking of?” How both Kate and her mentor(?) can both be Hawkeye she doesn’t understand, but that’s not the end of the world.

“Yeah,” Kate explains, somehow having managed to exclude her mentor from the conversation thus far. “Clint here is supposedly teaching me, even if I’m the one responsible for him half the time.” And that makes a lot of sense, and feels way simpler than most of the theories reddit had come up with. “We’re both Hawkeye for now,” Kate continues, “the world’s big enough for two of us.”

And okay, there’s a lot to unpack there. Michelle isn’t sure where to start, but that’s okay. She can make small talk instead, and will definitely be interrogating Peter later.

“Are either of you enhanced?” She asks, because that seems like the right sort of small talk to make with a vigilante. It's probably that or gear, and aside from their guitar bags (that, unless Clint really wants to give the party a rendition of Wonderwall, must contain their bow), they don’t seem to be equipped with anything particularly special. That said, Peter doesn’t either, his web shooters and suit hidden in the drawstring bag he has around one shoulder.

“Nope. I’m more un-enhanced than anything,” Clint says, gesturing towards what must be hearing aids. “Just good eyesight, a lot of training, and even more practice.”

“And you’re Clint?” Michelle finally asks, turning to offer the man a handshake.

“Clint Barton, Hawkeye,” the man agrees, and it’s like Michelle can hear the record scratch. C. Barton, the man that Matt and Foggy are helping with a tenants rights case, is Hawkeye. And okay, Michelle has been here for all of ten minutes, and she can tell that the day is going to be _weird_.

“I think I’m helping on a case of yours, then,” MJ says, cautious.

“Oh, yeah!” Clint says, grinning. “I passed it on to D— “ he’s cut of by an elbow to the gut from Kate, before he collects himself. “The offices of Nelson and Murdock. They, and you, I suppose, are helping me handle this awful situation in Bed Stuy. I ended up with this apartment building, long story, and the tracksuit Russians are trying to get me to sell it to them, which I’m obviously not about to do, so —“ and Kate cuts him off again, stepping forwards and speaking up. “Somehow the mob picked a fight with Clint, and they’re winning bad enough that he wants legal help.”

“They’re not beating me that bad,” Clint tries, before he sighs, and looks down at the sling his arm is in. “Okay, yeah. Daredevil was outnumbered too, though, and I’m pretty sure they broke his leg?”

Kate doesn’t seem any more impressed at that, and gives Michelle a look that just screams “see what I have to deal with?”. She’s certainly seem the same one on Karen, for admittedly very different reasons. It seems everyone Peter knew has the same bad habits, whether they were Vigilante or Lawyer.

And then there’s a bit of noise coming from the house, and a tall man, clearly Luke Cage, is behind them, and he ducks under the top of the doorframe to make it to the backyard. Behind him trails Foggy, who looks normal, as nice and presentable as ever. Beside him, arm in arm is Matt, who looks like the pair of crutches he is walking on have personally offended him.

“It’s so great that everyone could make it!” May is saying, which causes Michelle’s eyes to narrow. She’s scanning the group, because she’s sure that Daredevil would make it, and she hasn’t seen him. She looks past Peter and Jess, past Luke, and past the Hawkeyes. Finally, her eyes stop not on Foggy but on Matt, and on his crutches. And _oh_. His legs are broken. That's certainly something, and Michelle can't believe she was so blind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my next fic, I'm torn between continuing from this point in time with a new longer multi-chapter that features a new character, and writing Hero Spotter, a Daredevil & Spider-Man prologue that takes place when Peter is just starting out. Let me know what you'd prefer! 
> 
> MJ and Kate feel like characters who would get along well, and it was fun to write them interact a bit. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, I appreciate Comments and Kudos!


	3. Confrontation

Michelle is pretty sure she knows what’s going on, and as such, immediately feels like there has to be a hidden camera somewhere, because this should have been _obvious_. Seriously, there are like a dozen pieces of evidence that were almost damning on their own.

How many times had Matt shown up late to work, brushing off some obvious injury as a simple accident? Far too many to be a coincidence, especially combined with other pieces of evidence that should have been obvious indicators on their own.

Adding onto that the fact that after public situations were Daredevil was badly injured, MJ had always gotten a text from Foggy that she could take the day off, despite the firm’s typical nature as a well oiled machine that almost never stopped. Matt and his vigilante (Michelle had quickly learned that the term “hero” was not one that Peter and his peers liked) alter ego even looked similar: they had near-identical builds, and their facial hair matched.

Additionally, the fact that Matt was so well-trusted by vigilantes in the first place, even so far as knowing their identities. And damn, Daredevil had helped set her up with Peter, which is… something MJ still has to process.

(She realizes that should probably give Peter shit for this, too because it’s awful rude of him not to tell her. She does get it, though; he probably expected Matt would tell her eventually. And Matt, the devil, probably thought the situation was hilarious. She’s still going to make him do the dishes for a few days.)

So yes, with hindsight, it was obvious, and MJ is more than a little bit mad that she didn’t catch on sooner. But if Michelle could do one thing, it was adapt to new situations quickly. And right now, unless Matt/Daredevil really did have the ability to read people’s minds, then she knows more than Matt expects her to. Which means that she absolutely has to take advantage of that fact.

By the time MJ finally fits all the pieces together Aunt May has finished whatever little speech she made, and so MJ can drag Kate away from Clint because she needs backup for this. Besides, she can tell that Kate doesn’t want to deal with any more of Clint’s competitive eating ideas (he’s onto Hot Dogs now, which really can’t end well). “What’s the plan?” Kate asks, speaking in a low tone and stepping to put her back to Matt. Michelle takes a second to process, because _damn_ , it’s weird to see someone who can’t even drink yet switch into battle mode so quickly.

(In the back of her mind, she knows that Peter, her Peter, was like this too, when he was fourteen and she was making fun of him for not making it to Decathlon nationals, but she pushes those feelings down, at least for now.)

Second of all, MJ doesn’t actually have a plan. “No plan yet,” she admits, “but I know Matt and Daredevil, and he is a no good secret keeper who I need to troll somehow”, she decides aloud, talking low, and Kate smirks.

“Direct confrontation will scare the shit out of him,” Kate decides for them, and that makes enough sense to where MJ will use Kate’s plan. Kate takes another sip oflemonade that might be spiked from her obnoxious Spider-Man themed paper cup. They were May’s favorite to buy, apparently, and judging by how uncomfortable Peter looked holding one, that wasn’t a surprise.

Michelle decides she might as well fulfill her plan of getting back to Matt as soon as possible, so she loads up a Spider-Man paper plate with all forms of Salsa and Chips, and starts heading over to say hi to Matt and Foggy. Her initial plan had been to pretend to trip, dumping her salsa on Matt by way of flying snack dip. She makes her way towards Matt and Foggy (who aren’t even talking to other Vigilantes, for shame), trying to act normal. (She’s not good at that.)

At some point as she is walking though, Matt takes a step forward but falters, wincing as he places his foot on the ground. He slowly lifts the foot again, and Foggy helps steady him, all but forcing him to use the pair of crutches. Foggy looks concerned that Matt is hurt, and MJ gets that.

As Peter’s (and therefore as Spider-Man’s) girlfriend, she sometimes just wants to wrap him in bubble wrap and cover the city in “Spider-Man is already hurt, please stop committing crimes and hurting him” billboards. She realizes that would probably have the opposite of the intended effect - people seem way more excited to commit crimes when Peter isn’t around, which is the main reason she doesn't try to do exactly that.

So, because she doesn't actually want to hurt him, instead of pouring salsa all over an injured Matt Murdock who she is 87.5% sure is Daredevil, she just says “I can’t believe you tried to set me up with Peter twice over, Matt”, which seems to do the trick. Matt does a double take, and then smiles, which is disarming. Foggy should be stepping in to defend Michelle, she decides, but he shows absolutely zero inclination to do so. Instead, he does the opposite, and decides to pile on with the teasing.

“Let the record show that I helped, MJ,” Foggy remarks, clearly teasing. In hindsight, Michelle realizes, he definitely did, between sending them out to get lunch and having Peter pick her up to walk to work that one day.

“And are you going to complain about that, MJ?” He asks, which is a little rude of him to point out, but _fair_. At this point Michelle already wants backup, she decides, because dealing with a pair of lawyers is way more than she is prepared to handle. Her help, fortunately, arrives inKate, who has decided to join her.

“Still sounds a tad manipulative, though, doncha think MJ?” Kate’s grinning, and this is what MJ needs.

“I do, Kate, thanks,” She agrees, before carrying on. “And really Matt, with all due respect,” MJ begins, still winding up for whatever haymaker she’ll come up with.

“Which is none. Which is no due respect.” Kate chimes in. And that’s fair, actually. “Yeah, that. With no due respect, fuck you, you’re an asshole.”

And then they’re all laughing, and somehow things feel okay. “You definitely do owe me an explanation of the whole situation, now, MJ decides aloud, and Foggy promises he will, which is good enough. The situation really is funny, and while MJ has a good number of questions, she can definitely wait to ask them.

Peter has moved to talk to Luke instead of Jess, who continues to knock back shots of something from her flask. MJ decides she might as well meet the vigilante who shares her surname, so she excuses herself from conversation with Matt, Foggy, and the one she’s decided is the much cooler Hawkeye. She can tell that Jessica vigilante is definitely drinking whiskey by the scent alone, but she still looks mostly coherent.

“You’re Parker’s girl,” she slurs, and okay, never mind. Maybe she’s not. She also takes offense to the idea of being anyone’s anything, but Peter’s girlfriend isn’t such a bad thing to be anyways, so she nods her agreement.

“Take care of ‘im, alright? He’s been through a lot, but ‘e likes you,” Jones continues, taking another swig. MJ realizes that just like when interacting with drunk roommates in college, it’s easiest to just agree with her and then move on, so she does exactly that, and finds May, who is busy consoling a barfing Clint. Kate gives her a look that just _screams_ ‘why am I stuck with this man as my mentor’, and MJ is inclined to agree. “You want Pete to teach you instead of this guy?” She asks, and barely sees how fast Peter’s head swivels to glare at Kate.

“No,” “Not in the slightest”, they agree out loud, and MJ is pretty sure they’d be a perfect duo. That’s okay though, Kate can keep her failed competitive eater mentor and Michelle will spend more time with Peter and his lovely Aunt.

Things feel like a bit of a whirlwind from there, and Kate and May somehow switch places, and MJ makes her way to Peter, where she settles up against him, her hand finding his as they make small talk with Luke Cage and then Foggy and Matt and then a Clint who has given up competitive eating for good. Eventually people filter out, and it ends up just being Michelle and the Parker’s left, and they clean up all of the food and trash (and wow, Vigilantes can eat a lot).

They pack all of the trash into a pair of giant trash bags, and Aunt May sends Peter to go throw it She waits for a moment, before turning to face Michelle.

“He gets tired, sometimes,” she says, quiet. “He’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, and it’s not good for him.” She takes a moment to think of the right words, and then gives Michelle’s smile. “You’re good for him, you know. He’s happier. He hasn’t been this happy in… a long time. So thank you,” she says. 

Peter comes back almost as soon as May is done speaking, so MJ just pulls Aunt May into a hug, which she hopes is enough to convey all the emotions that her words make her feel. And then she hugs Peter, and her stomach growls almost on cue, which would be mortifying if the three of them didn’t crack up with laughter.

“Too much talking not enough eating today, MJ?” Aunt May asks, and yeah, that sounds about right. She and Peter buy a pizza to split on the walk home, and he lets her make fun of him for needing Foggy and Matt to work so incredibly hard to them up, but the truth is, neither of them really mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! For now, this is going to mark the end of my MJ POV works, but I'm going to continue to write things for this fic, and may come back to her. 
> 
> In terms of my next fic, I have a few ideas, and I'd love to hear what people would like to see most. I'm considering multi-chapters with Tony Stark or Matt Murdock, or a oneshot with Ned. 
> 
> Eventually I'd like to do all of these, but what you all are excited to read will help me prioritize. As always, comments and Kudos are well appreciated!


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